


Head in the clouds

by nymphori



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, M/M, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7095475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymphori/pseuds/nymphori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroo doesn't like methods surrounding the seat switching, but he can't deny he likes the results.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Head in the clouds

Tetsurou reaches up to store his bag in the overhead compartment and takes a moment to stretch all his limbs out before he takes his seat. Behind him, someone else is stowing their bag so he doesn't have to feel bad about holding up the flow of people moving onto the plane. Eventually, they complete their task and it means Tetsurou has to jump out of the way. He collapses into the tight space and uncomfortable chair. At least he managed to get the aisle seat. Once the plane is in the air he will be able to stretch his legs out as much as he wants, making sure this time that he keeps at least a vague note of where the flight attendants are.

He plugs his headphones into the socket in his arm and switches on the screen for the seat in front of him. "Hey!" It's not a long flight. He'll probably just listen to some music. He could do work, but, he doesn't want to. "Hey!" The holiday doesn't mean that much when he will be coming back straight into a conference presentation but at least it's better than nothing. "Hey!" Although this flight seems destined to be a drag because the person next to him is apparently a chatterbox. Can't they see his headphones? Don't they know what their presence means? "Hey!" Clearly not.

"Hi," Tetsurou responds, as politely as he can while also trying to get across that he does not want to spend the entire flight talking. He's not even the one being talked to.

The girl next to him leans across Tetsurou to catch the attention of someone sitting a row in front and across the aisle. "Hey!" She shouts, louder again. Multiple people turn to look their way and Tetsurou hopes it doesn't look like he is travelling with this girl. He doesn't want to be associated with her at all. The person she seems to be trying to talk to still doesn't look. "Hey!" This time, her shout is loud enough to make a baby somewhere start crying. Great, just what a cramped plane needed. Just what Tetsurou wanted to know before they took off. He's sitting next to what is probably the most annoying person on the plane and there is a baby somewhere around him that cries very loudly. "Hey!" Finally, the guy turns around.

"Do you want my seat?" Well, that's a strange question. Tetsurou feels more like he's the one who should be asking for a seat change, but either way, if it gets her to move he is fine with it. "Do you want my seat?" She repeats, having gotten no answer, "so that you two can sit together." She waves her hand between herself and the guy across the aisle, and it takes a moment and eye contact with the guy across the aisle for  Tetsurou to realise she isn't pointing at herself and the guy, she pointing at Tetsurou and the guy. "I'll give you my seat and I'll take yours."  

Tetsurou is confused, beyond confused. Does she know the people on the other side of this random guy... or something. Tetsurou strains his neck to try and see who they might be. He doesn't see them, but he does see something else. He notices something else and it makes him kind of angry. He doesn't want to move and now he doesn't want this girl to move either because why would she assume that just because Tetsurou and this guy seem to be the only two Japanese people on the flight that they want to sit next to each other. They didn't come together. They don't even know each other. It's beyond reaching. Does she think everyone in Japan knows everybody else in Japan?

He doesn't get to voice any of this, though. Instead, his barrage of unsaid words is interrupted by the guy across the aisle. "Thank you very much."

What. What?

The girl unclasps her seat belt and Tetsurou has to undo his own and jump out of his seat in order to accommodate the new seating arrangements. She squeezes past and Tetsurou steps back to let the guy who he can now note is not small pass into the seat next to him. Tetsurou is not giving up the aisle seat in a further charade of being polite. This guy is just going to have to deal with squeezing what must be his own six foot self into the meagre space they are given to travel.

He doesn't say anything. He sits down next to Tetsurou, nods his head, plugs himself into his phone and turns his head towards the window. That's that. It seems better than the chatty girl but Tetsurou still isn't quite sure how he feels about the situation considering that he is only Tetsurou's travelling companion because of a girl who doesn't know how the world works. He can leave it be but he doesn't like it. He doesn't want to just let the moment pass because it means the girl is going to continue believing is this strange thing that two people from the same country obviously know each other.

"No offence," Tetsurou says, always a good way to bring something up, "but we don't actually know each other."

The guy lets out a sigh and doesn't even touch what Tetsurou can only assume is music through his headphones. "I know," he says, just a touch louder than it needed to be. There is no elaboration, no explanation. Tetsurou is not done with this conversation and even if it turns him into the annoying seat neighbour he is going to get to the bottom of it.

First, though, he sits diligently through the in-flight safety demonstration.

Once it's over, however, is something else entirely. Tetsurou doesn't say anything, he just looks. He's pretty sure he has never seen the guy sitting next to him before. Like, he's ninety percent sure. More than ninety percent sure. Probably upwards of ninety-seven percent sure. He's pretty sure because looking at the guy is— well it's nice. That's one way to put it. It's so nice he forgets to stretch his legs out but that's only good news for the flight attendants and a much better option than forgetting that he has his legs stretched out into the aisle. The guy next to him has messy hair, but the artful kind of messy hair that looks nice and so unlike Tetsurou's own mop of hair. He's jealous of it, just a little bit. He has heavy eyes that speak of too many late nights followed by early mornings and combined with what Tetsurou is ballparking his age to be, he's a student. Ninety-seven percent sure they haven't met but maybe they've passed by each other on campus.

"There was a baby."

"What?" It's a more than random comment to throw in after an entire ascension completed in silence.

"That girl offered to swap seats, and I was sitting next to the baby she made cry. I thought it was a fair trade."

"That's not the reason she wanted to trade seats—"

"I know—"

"She thought we came on together, she thought we were travelling together."

"I did board right behind you so it might not just be the obvious thing."

"I boarded right behind some old dude sitting at the back of the plane, but nobody offered me a seat next to him."

"You probably don't want a seat next to him."

"Between you and me," Tetsurou says, switching to Japanese to keep it as much between them as possible, "I didn't want to sit next to that girl either. I think she spent five minutes trying to get your attention."

The guy says nothing back. It's the first break in conversation they've had for this short while and Tetsurou wonders if this is his mistake. Japanese looking doesn't necessarily mean he speaks the language. His family might have been here for generations and here Tetsurou is getting angry at the girl when he's just as bad.

"Ah, I'm sorry—"

He laughs. He covers it with his hand but laughter spills from between his fingers anyway. "I'm sorry, it's fine, it just made me feel a little homesick. I'm travelling alone so I didn't really expect anyone to talk to me so I just ignored it. That must have been annoying, though, I'm sorry."

"Homesick?" Tetsurou asks. It's not something he really feels. Not now, not after the year he's been living in America already. He does remember the first month, though. Moving over before he was even fully accepted into the program, just to use the time to soak in the new place he wanted to make his home and to force himself to really push through on his application. Wanting to do this, needing to do this, proving that he could do this. He's been there, done that, made it through to the other side.

"Exchange," the guy says and Tetsurou nods his head.

"How long for?"

"It was just for a semester but I thought I could go to some other cities and maybe check out some universities to see if I want to come back when I graduate."

"You absolutely should!" Tetsurou says, far too excited for a person he doesn't know who is studying something he knows even less. Oh god, what if he's on a high school exchange and Tetsurou has been talking to a high schooler this entire time? Tetsurou eyes the guy up. He doesn't look young enough to be in high school but looks are often deceiving. "What would you study?" That's a good question. That'll answer his other question without the need to voice it.

"Ah, I'm just finishing up my BA in film and I was kind of interested in doing a Masters. I'm not really sure, though. I don't think a Masters in Film will actually be useful for anything."

Tetsurou can only shrug, it's not an area of study that he knows but he can at least be grateful that the guy is around the same age as him. It makes things less weird. It helps him relax from the few moments where he panicked over making friends with someone so much younger than him.

Friends. Already that word. Interesting.

"If you think it will be interesting for you and you have a means to fund yourself I think you should go through with it. For a joke with a friend I came on my exchange just to take a course on brewing but I ended up loving it and being great at it and decided to come back and work on enology." The guy laughs again and Tetsurou decides that he wants to keep making that happen. It's a nice sound, refreshing in a way. "I don't really know how film works but in my head it's more of a portfolio thing than a study thing. If you can keep on top of a portfolio and study then there's no reason not to, and in a new place and a new country there should be a lot of things that catch your attention to use."

The guy nods his head. "There definitely is, I made a lot of movies with friends back home. We always worked together, scripts, photography, acting, music, it was easy. Coming over to do it all myself was overwhelming but I had fun just documenting my day to day and piecing that together into something I can submit when I get back as course credit."

"See, you're already thinking ahead. Take the plunge!"

The guy stares at him for a short while. Tetsurou breaks his eyes away for a moment while the flight attendant offers them both a drink. Tetsurou takes a coffee, the guy only asks for a glass of water. They both finish their drinks before conversation picks up again.

"You have put a lot of pressure on me considering I don't even know you."

"Kuroo Tetsurou, now you do."

Another laugh, "it doesn't work like that."

"Sure it does!" Tetsurou gives what he thinks is his best smile but it is only met with a shake of the head. "Boo! Well then, how long are you in Austin for maybe we could hang out and you could get to know me well enough for me to convince you it's worth it to uproot yourself and move your life across the ocean."

"I don't think a couple of days will be long enough for that."

"They can be if they're a good couple of days."


End file.
